Turtle Lair (1991 film)

This location was inspired by a real closed NYC subway station called City Hall station, which shut down in 1945. The film's actual subway and shaft sets were built and filmed at Screen Gems in Wilmington, North Carolina, and were later reused in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III and then moved to Vancouver, BC for the short-lived Fox Kids TV series, Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation.

Original Production-Used Subway Shaft Plan Dyeline Blueprint
Original production-used 29.5" x 41.5" subway shaft plan dyeline blueprint from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze. Dyeline blueprints such as this would have been handed out to the art department and set construction crew.

Roy Forge Smith was the production designer on all three live-action Ninja Turtle films, as well as on Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.

"G.S.G." are the initials of Geoffrey S. Grimsman, who's credited for being an art director on the film. Grimsman was also a set designer on Super Mario Bros. and the assistant art director on The Crow.

The blueprint shows detailed layouts of the interior of the subway shaft and the sidewalk vents where pedestrians would walk overhead.

Having felt like they've overstayed their welcome (and maybe ordered one too many pizza deliveries), the Turtles enter an underground vent and search the subway shaft to scout out a new home for themselves.

"We got the Foot up there with the ooze, and we're down here playing Century 21!" complains Raphael.

"Guys, guys, guys," Michaelangelo chimes in. "I just got an idea. Two words that could solve all of our housing problems: time share."

Moments after making his joke, Mikey falls through the shaft and stumbles upon an abandoned subway station below. There, the Turtles clean up and redesign the station, turning it into their new subterranean headquarters and all-purpose Turtle pad.